Declare War on Police Brutality

A Huntington Beach police officer was captured on video Friday morning as he struggled with a suspect in a convenience store parking lot and then shot the man multiple times, fatally wounding him.

Bystander video of the incident posted on social media showed the officer struggling with the man in front of a 7-Eleven store and the man pulling an object from the officer’s utility belt. The officer then unholstered his pistol, moved quickly away and began firing.

The videos show the man standing, turning and hunching his shoulders as the sound of up to seven gunshots can be heard. The officer’s voice also can be heard shouting, “Get down!” The man then drops a dark object from his right hand and collapses to the ground.

“This appears to be video of the event, but we have not confirmed the source. We are in the preliminary stages of our investigation and are not releasing any further details at this time,” said police spokeswoman Officer Angie Bennett.

The deadly encounter occurred about 9:30 a.m., when the officer contacted the man at the 7-Eleven at 6012 Edinger Ave. and the two got into an altercation, Bennett said. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Nearby Marina High School was placed on lockdown for roughly an hour after the shooting.

The bystander who captured the video told The Times that he was in his car when he saw a police officer backing his cruiser out of the 7-Eleven parking lot. The officer stopped and flashed his headlights at a man dressed in dark clothing. When the officer got out of his vehicle and approached, the man swung at the officer.

The bystander said he lost sight of the pair momentarily, then saw the officer standing over the man. That’s when he began recording the episode.

Police use of force experts say the video does not tell the whole story of the incident.

“The big question here is what does this officer know that I don’t know,” said Charles “Sid” Heal, a retired L.A. County sheriff’s commander and shooting expert. Did the officer hear something from the man or someone else that made that man a real deadly threat to a reasonable officer? “It is almost a panic shooting because of how quickly he shoots.” of the patrolman.

Heal said that in a fight, an officer isn’t always aware of what a suspect might snatch from their belt, and that might have escalated the situation. “He could have thought the man grabbed his Taser. That is weapon that can disable an officer.”

Ed Obayashi, a sheriff’s deputy and legal advisor for Plumas County, said the man’s proximity to the officer and his rapid movements may have increased the officer’s perception of a threat.

About author

Filming Cops was started in 2010 as a conglomerative blogging service documenting police abuse. The aim isn’t to demonize the natural concept of security provision as such, but to highlight specific cases of State-monopolized police brutality that are otherwise ignored by traditional media outlets.